cookies and milk ice cream pops.

It seems like most people are starting to jump on the frozen treats bandwagon. It's hardly impossible to scan through a page at Tastespotting or Foodgawker without a picture of a bowl of ice cream or sorbet. As usual, the pictures have succeeded, and have enticed me to abandon my oven for a while. It's just as well since I've just found out that July is the month of ice cream!

Sadly, I don't have an ice cream maker but I can't justify an excuse for one either. So, in order to create a smooth non-icy ice cream without a proper machine, I've researched on a few ways, one of which which includes taking the heavy cream portion of the ice cream recipe and whipping it to soft peaks before folding it into the rest of the mixture. This eliminates the need for whisking every hour or so in the freezer as the air has been incorporated into the mixture through the whipped cream.

I recently found a cheap popsicle mold so what better and cuter way can there be to kick start my freezer adventures?

I took David Lebovitz's fleur de lait ice cream recipe, kept the ingredients the same but used my own churn-free method. Fleur de lait basically means flower of milk if I'm not wrong, so coupled with my addition of mini oreos, I've created my own cookies and milk ice cream pops!

Instead of folding the oreos into the mixture, I layered them in the molds. Which means a cookie, a pour of milk mixture, a cookie, a pour of milk mixture... until I've reached the top. For a third of the recipe, I managed to get 3 pops.

Having never made popsicles before, and being very impatient, I tried to yank them out of their molds after only a minute or two out of the freezer. Very bad idea. Because it's a creamy mixture, I merely succeeded in creating a large hole with the stick, and that's the only thing that came out of the mold. Luckily, I was able to remedy this by allowing everything to melt down and freezing them again. I learnt my lesson and set the pops outside for at least 5 to 10 minutes until soft enough for the sides to detach from the molds.

These pops weren't a bit icy at all! I love this method of making ice cream. My only grouse is that they tend to melt faster than regular ice cream and when melted, the ice cream had a noticeable foamy texture. There was probably too much air in the custard so I would probably reduce the cream to milk ratio.


Making popsicles are so much fun!

Cookies and Milk Ice Cream Pops

adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

makes about 3 cups or 9 popsicles

2 cups whole milk, divided

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup heavy cream

mini oreos or crushed pieces of regular sized oreos

Put 1 1/2 cups of milk, sugar and salt in a heavy saucepan and start to warm them over low heat until sugar dissolves. Whisk the remaining 1/2 cup of milk and cornstarch together until the cornstarch has dissolved then stir into the milk.

Increase the heat and stir frequently until the mixture begins to bubble up. Make sure that it doesn't scorch on the bottom! Keep going until it becomes thick and coats the back of your spoon. Remove from heat and transfer it into a large bowl to cool. Make sure it cools completely before continuing with the next step because we don't want the whipped cream to melt!

Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and fold into the cooled milk mixture. Divide it among your popsicle molds, layering the oreos as you go. Freeze until hard.


Linked to These Chicks Cooked, Sweet Treats Thursday, Full Plate Thursday, Sweet Tooth Friday, Sweets for a Saturday and Sweet Indulgences Sunday.